Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is facing pushback in his campaign to stop food stamps from being used to buy soda.
The main problem: HHS isn’t even in charge of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which is run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
While both Kennedy and USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins have said that federal aid should not be used to buy products that cause obesity, USDA officials are irritated at Kennedy’s encroachment, leading to a behind-the-scenes split in the Make America Healthy Again drive, sources told Politico.
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Kennedy’s aides have allegedly encouraged state officials to ask the federal government to limit soda purchases for beneficiaries of SNAP, which feeds 42 million low-income people across the country.
“Rollins and Kennedy, they’ve both talked about this issue,” a USDA staffer told the outlet. “However, [HHS] is flying solo. It just doesn’t help to find a joint pathway forward.”
Rollins reportedly voiced support for the sugary drinks ban during a private White House meeting with MAGA influencers earlier this month, which Kennedy also attended.
“The top item that food stamps support through taxpayer dollars: Sugary drinks, to a group of children that come from a lower socioeconomic ladder that are in many ways from very impoverished families,” she said, according to Politico. “And yet, that’s the number one thing our food stamp program is buying.”
Kennedy said in a Fox News interview that low-income communities were being “poisoned” by soda drinks. “We shouldn’t be subsidizing them,” he said. “They’re the ones with the worst chronic disease burden, and we are literally poisoning those neighborhoods.”
Both departments denied to Politico that there was any friction over the issue.
“Where improvements can be made to encourage healthier decisions and healthier outcomes, the Department stands ready to support those improvements. This notion that USDA is obstructing is nothing more than inside-the-beltway nonsense,” USDA spokesperson Audra Weeks said in a statement.
